Karns' new store near Carlisle chosen for location

Karns Quality Foods, the Cumberland County-based grocery retailer, is adding a store in the Carlisle area for its good location, and because it was already reaching customers with marketing, a company official said this morning.

The 39,000-square-foot store will be at 1706 Carlisle Spring Road in North Middleton Township where Nell's Shurfine was formerly located, Karns said in a statement. Nell's closed in September.

"Karns is always looking at opportunities to grow in the Central PA area. However, we want to make sure it is the right location when making an addition," Andrea Karns, the grocery retailer's vice president of marketing, said in an email this morning. "When the opportunity to explore the Springs Road location came up, the initial attraction was the location of the store and the surrounding community."

The upgraded store will employ about 100 people once it opens, the company said.

Karns does not have any stores in direct competition with the location, and it reaches Carlisle with its advertising, so it was a good opportunity to land there with its full-service meat department, Karns said.

In 2011, Karns employed more than 800 people at seven locations in Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry counties with revenue of $106.4 million, according to Business Journal records.